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Nep, you should probably think about working for yourself. That way you can set your own hours and will be completely in charge of your own destiny. You will check off your important boxes this way.
I'm not going to work more than 40-45 hour work weeks. Ever. I'm taking it all the way to my death bed. Life is too short to be in the office until 8pm every night. And it's not healthy. Besides, it not even necessary in most jobs outside of public accounting. I know many, many successful people in many companies who got promoted and are making six figures from working 40-45 hour work weeks for many years. Having experienced working in public accounting and working up to 70 hours a week, it scarred me for life and since then, I only want 40 hour weeks. Period. So don't tell me to "pull on the bootstraps" and all that baloney. Long, stressful hours with me is NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN.
And as far as PTO goes, what a ridiculous thing to say, to tell me to use as little PTO as possible. Seriously? It's there to be USED. I always use 100% of all of my PTO days. It's part of my total compensation package and is intended and even encouraged to be USED. If anything, employers in this country need to abolish the 2-week PTO standard and bump it up to 4 weeks per year. It makes no sense to expect an employee to work a whopping 50 out of 52 weeks per year. SMH!
Many of us American workers are sick and tired of companies taking advantage of us. Squeezing as much productivity as possible for as little pay as possible. We're not going to take it anymore. We need to maintain a standard 40 hour work week and push for 4 weeks of PTO per year as a standard. It's called a fair shake between employees and employers.
Anyway, working hours and PTO is irrelevant to the solution to the problem brought up in the initial post of this thread.
Sometimes you just need to leave the state you are in. Why stick around a state that apparently has no need for your services. The longer you are unemployed, the greater chance you will get a job at a place who will underpay or overwork you.
I have seen this with my wife ever since the downturn. She has had several jobs and all of the companies treat her like a mercenary because she was unemployed prior.
When the economy tanked in 08 and she lost her high paying job, we moved across the country to TX where we lived for 4 years before coming back so that she could get a good job. Sometimes you have to do the hard things in order to succeed. Trust me, CT is not some super unique state where you cannot get a similar feel elsewhere. If anything, unless you come from FFC, you will find most of the booming areas of the country to be like a whole different world compared to CT, with everything being built new and a general sense of "can do" that goes with a growing economy.
Many of us American workers are sick and tired of companies taking advantage of us. Squeezing as much productivity as possible for as little pay as possible. We're not going to take it anymore. We need to maintain a standard 40 hour work week and push for 4 weeks of PTO per year as a standard. It's called a fair shake between employees and employers.[/quote]
Well, I'm now trying to explore other related careers that could utilize an accounting degree and still pay close to my market value here in central CT. Perhaps some financial analyst jobs might do. I don't think I would like it as much as tax accounting, but I think it would still be good. So I started applying to a few of those. But they probably won't be open to accepting a lifelong tax guy. Sigh.
As far as the alleged job hopping goes....the more I think about it, the more I am realizing that I really wasn't a serial job hopper. Yes, I've held six jobs in an eleven year period. But you have to look at why each job ended and by whom. Over these 11 years, I voluntarily left 3 jobs. The other 3 departures were not voluntary. I think it's reasonable for a young person to change jobs a couple times during an 11-year period. It's the norm, actually. However, the fact that 3 departures were involuntary, it simply gives the impression to prospective employers that I'm a job hopper, even though I'm really not. But I can't put the reasons for leaving/laid off on my resume, because that's just not customary to do. Sigh.
Also, BobNJ1960 suggested that if I go into general accounting and take the 30% pay cut, that I can work my way back up to $70K in five years. Lmao. Yeah right. If I take a general accounting role, which would pay an estimated $46K for me here in CT, I would have to get a massive $5,000 raise each year in order to be back at $70K. LMAOOOO! xD xD xD
Sometimes you just need to leave the state you are in. Why stick around a state that apparently has no need for your services. The longer you are unemployed, the greater chance you will get a job at a place who will underpay or overwork you.
I have seen this with my wife ever since the downturn. She has had several jobs and all of the companies treat her like a mercenary because she was unemployed prior.
When the economy tanked in 08 and she lost her high paying job, we moved across the country to TX where we lived for 4 years before coming back so that she could get a good job. Sometimes you have to do the hard things in order to succeed. Trust me, CT is not some super unique state where you cannot get a similar feel elsewhere. If anything, unless you come from FFC, you will find most of the booming areas of the country to be like a whole different world compared to CT, with everything being built new and a general sense of "can do" that goes with a growing economy.
Yep. I've seen nep's threads over the years and was in his exact same position a few years back, stuck in low wage work here in Tennessee (economy in this area is far worse than anything in CT), unable to find anything which paid decent or had health insurance. After spinning my wheels here for a year, I started applying everywhere - ultimately moved to Indianapolis, where I immediately more than doubled my TN salary, then applied for and got a more senior position there. That position didn't work out, similar to what happened to him in Columbus, but that experience in Indiana helped me land a good position here in east TN, and I kept my IN salary.
Had I not left Tennessee to begin with, I'd be doing well to make $15/hr now. If something happened to my current employment, it's pretty much a 100% guarantee I'd have to move at least several hours away to Charlotte or Nashville to maintain my current salary. My family wouldn't like it, but ultimately, they'd have to live with it.
People have to move all the time to make a life for themselves. I know nep has strong family ties, but if you want a professional level job, you have to go where the work is. If family is more important, and for many folks it is, you then have to get by on whatever work you can find locally, even if that work is out of field, low paying, sucks, etc. It doesn't sound like there is much work for him there, at least not to his standards. He's going to have to make a major decision on whether he wants to stay in CT, and likely take a reduced standard of living, to stay close to family and friends, or move elsewhere to maintain a higher standard of living. Once he gets on whichever track he chooses, it becomes increasingly difficult to change course the older you get and the longer you're in a career, especially if you're a person who gets set in your ways.
I work closely with our finance, accounting, and tax team at a large employer. Many of these people have been here for years. Most are significantly older than nep. Once people get a good corporate finance/tax/accounting job, particularly in areas without a lot of these jobs (here, and presumably like where nep is in CT), they hang on to them. There is almost zero turnover in this department and very few openings, far fewer than you'd expect.
From what I remember, he doesn't even see his family that regularly, but wants to be close to them. Personally, I wouldn't stay in CT if there is no work and if he doesn't see them any more regularly.
If I were him, I'd be looking to leave. He's been in CT for many years, and he's had trouble maintaining consistent employment. If the prospective employer is right down the street from another he got fired from, it's reasonable to expect word may get around. Columbus is a progressive city with a bright future, excellent economy, good gay scene, one of the largest universities in the country, a state capital, etc. It isn't dogpatch USA. If I were him, I'd be looking to get back to Columbus since he seemed to like it other than the job mishap.
Serious Conversations makes a lot of valid points and insight.
I am not willing to reduce my standard of living and I don't want to regress my career. I want to make money for a comfortable standard of living, be able to save plenty of money on the side, and be able to save sufficiently for retirement. The only way for that to happen is to make sure my next job is a tax accountant job. At my age (33), I don't want to regress. I want to advance and move forward, earn more, etc. I don't want to throw away 9 years of experience down the drain. That's kind of depressing.
In the meantime, I have been applying to Financial Analyst jobs in the Hartford area, just in case, because I'm qualified for some of them and they seem to pay just as well as my market value as a tax accountant. I don't expect much out of it, but at least I can't say I ignored those jobs, which are available locally.
If I end up settling for mediocre or lower paying job in CT, I'm pretty sure that one year or two down the road, you would see me making posts in here complaining that my pay is too low and I can't save for retirement, etc.
Have you considered a hedge fund tax job in FFC? You would probably have to start junior since a unique industry, but salary would still be greater than $70k, hours would be way less than public but more than corporate, and there are a ton of these jobs right now. Would be six figures in a few years (or with decent bonus, in the first year or two). However, most would require you have at least one public busy season under your belt. I know you don't want to do it but one season (and the associated hours/hell) might give you WAY more future options.
Serious Conversations makes a lot of valid points and insight.
I am not willing to reduce my standard of living and I don't want to regress my career. I want to make money for a comfortable standard of living, be able to save plenty of money on the side, and be able to save sufficiently for retirement. The only way for that to happen is to make sure my next job is a tax accountant job. At my age (33), I don't want to regress. I want to advance and move forward, earn more, etc. I don't want to throw away 9 years of experience down the drain. That's kind of depressing.
In the meantime, I have been applying to Financial Analyst jobs in the Hartford area, just in case, because I'm qualified for some of them and they seem to pay just as well as my market value as a tax accountant. I don't expect much out of it, but at least I can't say I ignored those jobs, which are available locally.
If I end up settling for mediocre or lower paying job in CT, I'm pretty sure that one year or two down the road, you would see me making posts in here complaining that my pay is too low and I can't save for retirement, etc.
What the heck is wrong with you??? Do you not get that you have done NOTHING to prove your worth to any company? Your employment history looks bad, PERIOD. There are NO excuses. NONE. You got fired from your last job because of attitude. You walked away from the one before that after only a couple of years. You had multiple jobs before that that you left after short periods of time. Do you not see this? Also, you have done nothing outside your job for your career which is why networking has done nothing for you. The fact is that MOST people find good jobs by networking. Unfortunately whether you like it or not that is what you have to do today to get ahead in the real world. You cannot just do your job and walk away. You have to pay some dues that you refuse to pay. Now you have to live with the consequences. Everyone here has said the same thing yet you still keep whining and crying. GROW UP and stop being a baby. I have said this before, if you were my kid, I would have smacked the crap put of you. Jay
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What the heck is wrong with you??? Do you not get that you have done NOTHING to prove your worth to any company? Your employment history looks bad, PERIOD. There are NO excuses. NONE. You got fired from your last job because of attitude. You walked away from the one before that after only a couple of years. You had multiple jobs before that that you left after short periods of time. Do you not see this? Also, you have done nothing outside your job for your career which is why networking has done nothing for you. The fact is that MOST people find good jobs by networking. Unfortunately whether you like it or not that is what you have to do today to get ahead in the real world. You cannot just do your job and walk away. You have to pay some dues that you refuse to pay. Now you have to live with the consequences. Everyone here has said the same thing yet you still keep whining and crying. GROW UP and stop being a baby. I have said this before, if you were my kid, I would have smacked the crap put of you. Jay
